A Dialogue on Mailer's Novels

Authors

  • Robert J. Biegebing Southern NH University Author
  • Philip Bufithis Shepherd University Author

Keywords:

literary criticism, dialogue, American fiction, novelistic achievement, mythopoetic narrative, authorial voice, ethics and aesthetics

Abstract

Are Mailer’s novels visionary narratives that offer the boon of a new consciousness or do they present more sensation than substance? Is he a major philosophical novelist of our time or are his ideas often untenable? Mailer scholars Robert J. Begiebing and Philip Bufithis debate these and related questions.

Author Biographies

  • Robert J. Biegebing, Southern NH University

    Robert J. Biegebing is the author of over twenty articles and six books. He directs the Low-Residency MFA at Southern NH University, where he has won three awards for excellence in teaching. His books include two on Norman Mailer and a trilogy of novels. His novel Rebecca Wentworth’s Distraction won the Langum Prize for historical fiction in 2003. His fiction writing has been supported by grants from the Lila-Wallace Foundation and the New Hampshire Council for the Arts.

  • Philip Bufithis, Shepherd University

    Philip Bufithis is the author of Norman Mailer (1978, Japanese edition 1981), and is the former executive editor of the literary magazine Antietam Review. His essays on twentieth-century American literature and his stories have appeared in many publications. He is Professor of English Emeritus at Shepherd University.

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Published

2026-02-10

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2008): In Memorium

Section

Articles

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